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Good morning guys and welcome back to the ValorosoIT channel, the channel dedicated to vintage computers and electronics.
Today we're talking about this gentleman here: IBM PS/2 model 30. I bought it on eBay for a cheap price because the computer didn't work initially. I had to do some chores. Now I'll show them to you.
Then, after I managed to get it started, amidst a thousand vicissitudes because I was also missing some parts, I installed some nice software. Including Norton Commander, Norton Utilities and the beautiful Windows 1 (1.04).
So if you want to know more about all these things I've done with this computer, follow this video all the way to the end.
Let's open the computer and see what I had to fix.
So, first of all, the computer arrived to me without a monitor and without a keyboard, and also without a mouse. It was just the camera body. In fact, this monitor and this keyboard are from this other computer that you see below. One second, I'll show you.
Here it is. This is an IBM PS/2 model 60, which is what I had when I was little. In fact, I'm very fond of him. The only thing is that I still have to start it. Many years have passed: it was there waiting for cleaning and various arrangements to then start it.
I purchased the mouse later because it was not included with the sale of the computer. By the way, I also made a short video showing how I cleaned this mouse, and now, sure enough, it looks like new.
Here it is, I didn't put the screws on the side. the computer is always open. So, I can open and close it whenever I like, also to mount various little things, hard disks rather than other peripherals, to do experiments.
So, obviously the first thing I did was clean it. Then, back here, here I installed this lithium battery in place of the other alkaline batteries that he had and I didn't like them, because they had already started to leak acid. So, this way it should last a little longer and prevent the battery acid from leaking out and corroding the various tracks of the printed circuit.
Another thing, these two RAMs were broken, in reality it was only one SIMM that was ruined, not both. So, I ordered these two new 30-pin SIMMs with parity on eBay, because they are not the same. For example, I had others with the same shape as the Macintosh Plus, but in reality they were not compatible, because these have 9 chips, so they also have parity memory, whereas the other Macintosh ones did not have parity.
Initially, I took them from my IBM PS/2 model 60, just to see if the computer would turn on. But then, having found them cheaply on eBay, I bought new SIMMs and installed them.
When I bought this computer, it didn't even have a hard drive. So, initially I used this one, it's the hard disk of an IBM PS/1, that computer over there from which I borrowed it temporarily and then later returned it to him. This hard disk is 30 megabytes, as you can see it has a single connector through which both data and power flow. In fact, it is not IDE compatible, it is not compatible with other hard drives I had around. I had to use this one from the PS/1.
Then, subsequently, on WallaPop I found a Spanish seller who had this other hard disk here of 20 megabytes, even 20 megabytes, and it must have perhaps also been the original of this computer, because I had read the technical characteristics of the time, in a brochure, and it was a 20 MB hard disk. So I bought it, hoping it would work, and indeed, fortunately, it worked. So, I also connected this hard drive to the computer.
Another thing I did was try to clean the computer well, it didn't actually look dirty, but it smells... a horrible musty smell! Here, this is it! When it turns on, it smells musty. So, I tried to clean it as best I could. However, in reality, it still smells of mold, probably there must be something dirty inside the power supply.
The only thing is that, even if I remove the power supply, I can't open it. Or rather, I don't want to open it because it isn't closed with screws, it's riveted, so I'd have to drill out the rivets and then put them back on. In short, since it works correctly, the voltages are right, I prefer to keep a little musty smell, hoping it goes away with use, perhaps keeping it open from time to time, but we'll see.
In fact, if any of you know how to remove the smell of mold without taking things apart, write it down in the comments, because you will surely please me.
Let's go behind the computer and see that I also installed a Wi-Fi modem on the serial port of the computer. I need this to possibly connect via a terminal, a terminal program, to the BBS. For example, the RetroCampus BBS.
So, briefly summarizing the technical characteristics of the computer: Intel 8086 processor (I know that the IBM model 30 with 286 processor also exists, but in practice this one is the cheapest one, therefore with the 8086), it has no mathematical coprocessor, so the 8087 is missing. I tried to buy it on Aliexpress, when it arrives I will make a short video to see if it works.
Both the processor and, therefore, also the mathematical coprocessor have 640 KB of RAM, of which 128 are soldered on the motherboard and the remaining 512 are on two 30-pin SIMMs with parity. The floppy disk drive is 720 KB and you can see it because it doesn't have the writing 1.44 above the button, which therefore has nothing, and the hard disk is 20 MB.
Now I'll close the computer and start it up.
[ASMR turning on vintage computer]
So, the first difficulty I encountered in starting this computer was finding diskettes. In fact, an IBM computer without the system disk is known to be virtually unusable. It is also used to set the date and time.
So, I found images of the original system disks of this IBM model 30 version 8086 on the internet. The online disks are in IMG format, which is not the same as the IMG found on CD-ROM, for example, but to save it on diskette you need a specific utility.
You can use a normal Windows computer, then download the diskette image from any site. So, in this case, I downloaded... Let's see if I can find it... The Starter Disk of the IBM PS2 model 30. As you can see, I had to plug one of the two windows of the diskette to simulate the fact that it is a 720 KB diskette and not a 1.44 MB one.
After finding the image on a website, I downloaded it onto a normal computer and saved it to a floppy disk using the DiskWrite utility. DiskWrite is a free utility that is used to take IMG files and save them to floppy disk, so you will need to have a computer with a 3 and a half inch floppy disk drive, internet connection and a Windows operating system on which to run the DiskWrite program.
In addition to the Starter Disk, therefore the startup disk of this computer which I needed to make the first settings, I downloaded the PC DOS, then the IBM DOS version 3.30, which is the original DOS that this computer here must have had, and other nice little programs, as I said before.
Then, later, I found some real 720 KB diskettes without putting a window on them. Norton Utilities, 4 disks, Windows 1.04, 3 disks, and Norton Commander, 1 disk only.
Shall we try some little program?
So, this is the beautiful Norton Commander, I mean I love it, I even used it as a boy. In practice, you probably know it too. It is used to comfortably navigate inside the computer without having to type CDs and then start programs, and it is also useful for editing files.
For example, if I want to edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT, as I had to do when I installed DOS 3.3, I had to make my own customizations, therefore the command prompt as I like it, the paths on which to find programs, the Italian keyboard and also a bit of advertising on my website www.valoroso.it. It's very comfortable.
So, even if we go and get a diskette, for example this one here... We go to the window on the right and put diskette A: here. You see the list of files which, in this case, is only one, on diskette A:.
I can copy it, for example, to a specific folder on the computer. For example, I could make copy (F5). Where do we want to put it? In C:.
And the computer copies it to C:, conveniently, without needing to use the DOS COPY command. Let's also say that it wouldn't be a big problem, eh, because if you know the various commands you can easily use them. Instead, if you prefer a little more convenience, you can use some nicer utilities.
And here it is, for example, this is a terminal, it is used to connect via serial port to the BBS, as we said.
Now we don't use it, we're not going to use this because then to connect to the RetroCampus BBS we use the Windows 1 terminal.
Another program I want to show you are Norton Utilities. These were also very famous at the time. In reality, Peter Norton didn't create them, he was just a reseller, and then later they were also acquired by Symantec, which is the company with which they became, in my opinion, they are also quite famous.
Interestingly, there is the Disk Doctor, which is used to check and fix the hard disk rather than a floppy disk which may seem faulty.
In addition to the analysis of files, partition table, etc., you can also start the analysis of the disk surface, which is very convenient especially for such old disks, in which some sectors may be damaged, and at this point he marks them as defective. In fact, I had already run it, and there are some areas that he identified as faulty. At least we know that no data should be saved there. Let's see if we can interrupt it... Yes.
Other neat things you could do were restore deleted files, as if it were a current Windows Recycle Bin. Or try to unformat a disk. Maybe a disk was formatted by mistake, you could have tried to avoid this.
There were various utilities, but for example this one here, Speed Disk, is a bit like Defrag, therefore the disk defragmentation utility, which is also very convenient especially on these types of disks which are magnetic (because current SSDs don't need defragmentation). But these disks, in reality, yes, because otherwise, to go and look for a file, perhaps the file is broken up into different sectors of the disk in distant positions, and therefore the head would take longer to move from one sector to another than, for example, having the sectors all neatly aligned.
Well, obviously, we don't do it now, also because I did it recently. So we can also avoid it.
There were several utilities. In short, find files, everything. I also found a utility that was used to check the speed of the computer's hard disk, also here in the Norton Utilities, very nice.
But the highlight is definitely Microsoft Windows 1.04!
Non Windows 11! Windows 1.04!
In short, with Windows, you make good use of all the possibilities of the computer because it also has a mouse. It's very cute. In reality, in Windows 1.04 it's not like there are a lot of things inside.
For example, we have the calculator. We also have the calendar. Eh, we also get the right date. Look, May 21, 2023, which is today that I'm recording. So other than the Millennium Bug, here we are well beyond and this computer works very well.
We have the clock, writing programs, for example Notepad (notepad), or even Write. We have Paint, which is a drawing program, this one.
Yes, it's not that I'm very good, eh, as an artist. You know, you already saw it with the Philips MSX2 video.
And instead, the very, very nice thing, I really wanted to do it, is the terminal. I have already set this up, I saved a file where all my settings are. I called it ANSI...
And through the WiFi modem that you saw before, which I showed you earlier, connected to the serial port, we can connect to the internet.
You see that I am connected to a network, and now I connect to the RetroCampus BBS.
And here we are connected to the Internet. Among other things, in addition to the novelty of ChatGPT that I had already shown, I had connected with the Commodore 64, with the Amiga 2000, and also with this computer here, via the RetroCampus BBS.
You can browse these websites and also mine: therefore Amedeo Valoroso (www.valoroso.it).
And it shows you which are the latest articles that have been published on my website. For example, Web server with the Commodore 64 or the technical data sheet of this computer here, therefore IBM PS/2 model 30.
Alright guys. I hope I have awakened some memories of software that perhaps you used as children, or perhaps some bad memories because you had to work with these software. But I also hope I have given you some useful information.
For example, connecting to the BBS and using a vintage computer like this one. It is possible to connect to the Internet and therefore to the BBS. Or how to transfer the data you find on the Internet, therefore diskette images to diskette with the DiskWrite software, as I told you, and then use it on this type of vintage computer.
If you liked the video, I invite you to like, subscribe to the channel, comment, activate the notification bell, so you will be notified when I publish other videos.
And we'll see you in the next video, see you soon. Bye bye.